MORE THAN JUST EXERCISE

Thursday, April 30, 2015

The gym is a good place for exercise. It is also a good place to make friends. Murray and Charlotte Schreiber are two of the friends my wife and I have at our gym. Charlotte is a lovely lady full of vim and vigor who loves life and makes friends easily. She is eighty-nine. Murray is a retired doctor with a brilliant mind and a beautiful voice. He is ninety-two. These two lovely people are Jewish and they love God and others. While visiting in their home yesterday Dr. Schreiber read me a devotional that he had just written.

SEE YOURSELF AS GOD SEES YOU

One who is made in the image of God and dearly loved.

One who is endowed with many gifts and talents.

One who deserves celebration for having achieved a good, valid self image.

To add to your well being always remember to recite daily prayers of gratitude for all the wondrous good elements in your life.

NO MORE EXCUSES DIET

Wednesday, April 08, 2015

NO MORE EXCUSES DIET
3 Days to Bust Any Excuse
3 Weeks to Easy New Eating Habits
3 Months to Total Transformation
Your real-life plan for your best body ever
By Maria Kang

OVERVIEW: When it comes to controlling your weight, a balanced diet is key. Unlike many restrictive programs that cut out an entire food group or demand huge sacrifices, Maria offers a realistic and long-term eating plan of 30 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, 30 percent fats, and 10 percent that can be customized depending on your goals. Maria has designed a completely customizable workout guide to incorporate exercise into even the busiest life. The No More Excuses Diet is not about making you feel guilty for how you look, or ashamed of the choices you've made; it is about getting you to a place where you feel in control of your life, love your body, and prioritize your health. Packed with lots of encouragement and a clear plan of action, The No More Excuses Diet will empower you to bust through the excuses that hold you back and start living a life you love.

AUTHOR: Maria King is a health advocate who believes that health begins with choice. She is the founder of Fitness Without Borders, as well as the No Excuse Mom movement, an organization of thousands of women around the country making a commitment to their health one day at a time. Maria lives in California with her husband and their three children.

MY REVIEW: This is not a book just for women or moms. This is a book for all of us. I am a male diabetic needing to lose weight, and get my blood sugar under control. I am now doing that. This book has helped. When I started reading the book I was already exercising, eating better, losing weight and getting my blood sugar under control, but I improved even more after following Maria's advice. I wish I had known about her book sooner.

This is a book with a real-life plan for a better body. Even if you do not need to lose weight but you do want to be healthier, then this is a book you need to read. Maria gives you exercises that you can do at home, and shows you how to develop new eating habits that will help change your life. IF you are one of the MANY that need to make some changes for your health's sake---then you will want to get this book.

(I received this book from Blogging For Books in exchange for a fair and honest review.)

SEARCHING FOR SUNDAY

SEARCHING FOR SUNDAY
Loving, Leaving, And Finding The Church
By Rachel Held Evans

OVERVIEW: For a generation that has largely said, "count me out," church represents a complicated relationship of both longing and apathy. There's a history there—a past full of confusion and hurt, but a past that often is impossible to abandon. In Searching for Sunday, Rachel Held Evans exposes her own thorny relationship with the church, articulating the concerns, frustrations, and hopes of many of her peers. Through a series of stories told around the church's sacraments—baptism, confession, and communion, among others—Evans offers the beginnings of a road map back to church and the resurrection that awaits when we are willing to give up and begin again.
(From the back of the book.)

AUTHOR: Rachel Held Evans is an award-winning writer whose articles have appeared in local and national publications. She lives in Dayton, Tennessee, with her husband, Dan. Follow her on her blog at rachelheldevans.com, on twitter at @RachelheldEvans, and on Facebook at Facebook.com/RachelHeldEvans.page.

MY REVIEW: In my opinion, this is a must read for every preacher—young and old, every Bible professor and church leader. I say this because I feel that Rachel Held Evans is describing what is going on in the minds of many who are concerned with the things about God, religion and every day living. All church leaders need to be informed. However, I'm not sure this is a book for everybody.
Many, mainly the ultra-conservative, may not be able to "handle" what Rachel is feeling and saying.
Oh, we all need to hear her message but if we can't meditate on it and reason through it without getting upset and "sick" then it's best we leave it to others to interpret it for us.

I have a graduate degree in Bible and was a minister for forty-seven years. I am conservative in my thinking. I had a difficult time in reading this book and determining how to review it. I understand what Rachel is saying and I am in agreement with much of it. But her experiences—what she is feeling and going through is so much different from anything I have personally experienced with the church that I can't identify with it. Again, I understand her deep emotion are real. Real for her but not for me. For example, Rachel saw a sign that read: "Vote Yes On One" and "Marriage=1 Man + 1 Woman" and it so upset her that she left the church and now years later is still bothered by it. I have strong feeling about the message from that sign but my feelings are entirely different than hers. And that's OK. At least, it's OK with me. What you will find in this book are the sincere, deep, emotional, thoughts of a great writer.

(I received this book free from the publisher for my honest review.)